Learnings from Developing a New B2B SaaS Product (Suryaveer Lodha (Sunny) Product Stream)

Copyright © 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |

Learnings from developing a new SaaS Product

Suryaveer Lodha (Sunny)Senior Eng. Manager, Product Development Utilities Global Business Unit October 1, 2016


Our Mission

We aim to provide the industry with the most complete cloud platform

for the entire utility value chain, from meter to grid to end-customers.

Network Meter-to-cash End consumer


over

50%of US residential

energy data

600+

billionmeter reads

nearly

2/3of US residentialsmart meter data


Opower’s customer engagement platform combines insightful analytics, behavioral science, and cutting-edge UX to help utilities

elevate the customer experience


● 20-60% boost to

cross-sell

● 4x email open rates

vs. industry average

Marketing

DSM● 11 TWh saved to date

● 3-18% peak reduction

savings

Customer Experience● 4x more web registrations

● 5% boost to J.D. Power

scores

Contact Center

● 19% fewer high bill calls

● 40 seconds task time saved

● 7% more digital users

AMI● 40% of AMI customers

online

● 15% higher customer

sentiment

Opower has evolved with our utility clients to provide more value from customer engagement


Customer Service Interface

Customer Information System

Demand-Side Management

Digital Customer Experience

SaaS customer engagement product for utilities


CSR Billing Advisor

• New cloud based Customer Care Solution

• Developed on Opower’s new NextWeb

Platform

• Helps CSRs answer High Bill Calls


Ideation → Launch (9 months)


#1 : Pre-mortem


#1 : Pre-mortem

● Premortem is the hypothetical opposite of a postmortem

● Imagine that the project failed spectacularly○ Team members generate plausible reasons for the

project’s failure.

Additional reading: https://hbr.org/2007/09/performing-a-project-premortem

https://hbr.org/2007/09/performing-a-project-premortem

https://hbr.org/2007/09/performing-a-project-premortem


#1 : Pre-mortem

● Benefits:○ facilitates a positive discussion on critical failures○ increases the likelihood that main issues are

identified○ analyze the magnitude and likelihood of each

failure○ Plan for preventative actions to protect against

project failure.


#1 : Pre-mortem (in practice)

● Very useful to identify potential blind-spots● Discuss various points of failure and responses● Involve individuals outside the product team:

○ UX○ Sales○ Marketing○ Business Development○ Customer Success○ Delivery Teams

● Active team involvement essential.


#1 : Pre-mortem (Example)


#2 : Ideation & Validation



● Build vaporware, with inputs from Engineering.○ Led by Product & UX ○ Multiple client visits○ Use Paid Online portals to get more feedback

■ Mechanical Turk■ Ads on online portals for paid user research



● Verify feature parity with Market Requirement Docs (MRDs)

● Focus on easier interactions○ Iterate quickly during prototyping

● Use Alpha Clients to fine tune the product to hit key metrics (equivalent to soft launch)


#2 : Ideation & Validation Go where the customer is! (conferences, workshops etc)


#2 : Ideation & Validation (Comparative Analysis)


#2 : Ideation & Validation Try different mocks & get user feedback ...

Agent profile

Case form Main screen Customer profile

Customer history

Filters List

Agent profile

Nav

igat

ion

Nav

igat

ion

Tabs

Tabs

Module 1 Module 2 Module 3

Nav

igat

ion

1

Navigation 2

Module 4 Module 5


#2 : Ideation & Validation (final design)

Customer Insights

Home energy analysis

Feature A

Feature B ...

Customer InsightsData Browser

4. What can I do in the future?

● Focus on specific categories● Learn tips to save● Get proactive communications

2. What caused the discrepancy?● Impact of weather, bill length, and usage

3. Can you give me more detail?● Details on costs, usage, and weather

1. Was this bill higher than usual?● Last year, last month comparison


#3 : Be Agile, define your own Scrum



● Fixed length iterations (1~3 weeks)● Active team involvement in Sprint planning● Daily Stand-ups● Sprint Demo● Sprint Retrospectives● Well Groomed & prioritized backlog● Track Work In Progress (< # of devs)● Bias towards increasing velocity● Iterate & be flexible! (Individuals over processes!)


#4 : Research Spikes



● Every feature preceded by a research spike 1 iteration ahead.○ Useful for ramping up new developers○ Strong participation from Product, UX ○ Include Core team member if needed



● Verify assumptions/reduced scope with core team - avoid blindspots. Add these to a FAQ list.○ Avoid isolated decision making○ Minimizes scope creep

● Underestimated importance of recording discussion - record videos and upload them on the shared space.

● Spend time to document decisions!


Benefit of Research Spikes & Pre-mortem


#5 : Track & Measure everything!


#5 : Track & Measure everything!● Use Data/ metrics to decide:

○ Feature prioritization○ Bugfixes○ Client comms/rollouts etc.

● Spend time upfront to think about metrics collection○ Specially, if client reporting needed○ Set up a Data Curation Advisory Board for

consistency across the org.


#5 : Track & Measure everything!● Metrics (Web) help us understand exactly how the

product is being used. ○ Use it to iterate on a FTUE○ Use data to take advantage of scale!

■ Specially for Cloud B2B products● Put an effort to make the metrics easily accessible to

the internal stakeholders.


#5 : Track & Measure everything! (Example)

RUEL (Reach Usage Effectiveness Love) Dashboards


#6: Maintain Launchbooks & Runbooks


#6: Maintain Launchbooks & Runbooks

● Focus on documentation from the very beginning○ Add acceptance criteria on tickets to update the

docs as you deliver features● Have the new/Junior engineers feel comfortable with

Launching the product on lower tiers: QA and Stage○ Let them figure out how to launch○ Ask them to suggest updates to make these

more streamlined.


#6: Maintain Launchbooks & Runbooks (Benefits)

● After first 3 launches, we got delivery teams to lead Alpha launches to big clients, with minimal support from dev team.

● Devs could focus more on feature development, and not client launches.

● Easier path to GA


#7: How to run a successful UAT (specially for B-B)



● Engineering Manager, along with Product should attend (drive?) first few UATs

● Work with System Integration Testers (SITs) and QA to identify different data scenarios we support○ Also clearly state the edge cases not supported○ Dedicate resources to Anonymize PII & Dog-food

the product internally○ Bug bashing parties for devs!



● Account for Delivery Team time for the following:○ Find actual customers on Production data with

various data scenarios.○ Load latest production data on Stage tier○ Test these customers internally leading to UAT

● Work with Customer Success - to develop a training story around these customers and guide Business buyers during UAT and on-site training.


Celebrate Successes & Failures!


Thank you!

Learnings from Developing a New B2B SaaS Product (Suryaveer Lodha (Sunny) Product Stream)

Technology

Transcript of Learnings from Developing a New B2B SaaS Product (Suryaveer Lodha (Sunny) Product Stream)